Belt for personal wear



June 15, 1943. w. GovAN BELT FOR PERSONAL WEAR Filed Jan. 23, 1941 Patented June l5, 1943 2,321,808 `BELT FOR PERSONAL WEAR William Govan, Chenango Bridge, N. Y., assignor to The Drybak Co rporation, Binghamton,

N. Y., a corporation o! New York Application January 23. 1941, Serial No. 375,694

(Cl. Gil-21) Claims.

This invention relates to a belt for personal wear provided with a pocket, and more especially to a belt provided with a pocket which forms an integral part of'the belt and a. method of makingn the same.

Hitherto, in order to provide a pocket in a belt, it has been necessary either to use an inner lining for the belt from which to form the pocket or a 'portion of the belt has been lined to form the outer portion of the pocket. In the flrstconstruction the use of an inner lining detracts from the appearance of the belt, and in the second construction the closure member of the pocket cannot lie flush with the inner surface of the belt. In this construction the belt has a tendency to bulge.

One of the objects of this invention is to avoid the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.

Another object of this invention is to provide a method of making a belt containing a pocket from a single longitudinally extending strip of solid leather.

A further object of this invention is to provide a belt having a pocket which is an integral part of the belt.

With these and other objects in view, this invention embraces broadly the concept of a method of forming a belt having a pocket from a single strip of longitudinally extending leather and the resulting product. 'I'his construction permits the use of an unlined belt and allows the pocket to be flush with the interior surface of the belt thereby preventing bulging.

In the preferred construction, a separable hookless fastener, such as a zipper fastener, is employed to close the pocket although other types of fastening devices may be used if desired without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is .a perspective view of the belt showing the pocket with the fastener in'closed position.

Figure 2 is a view taken along line 2-2 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a view taken along line 3-3 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 4 is a view taken along line 4 4 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 5 is a view taken along line 5-5 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In order to illustrate the invention, there is shown in Figure 1 an unlined belt of solid leather, generally indicated by the numeral I, which comprises a longitudinally extendingstrap of solid leather 2, the split end 2' 0f which may be looped and stitched, as indicated at 3, to carry a buckle l provided with a tongue 5. Conventional transverse loops 6 and 1 may also be provided to retain the free extremity of the strap 2. This free. extremity `is provided with a series of apertures 8 which are adapted to engage the tongue -5 of the buckle l. Both margins of the longitudinally extending strap 2 may be stitched as shown at 9.

The belt ls provided with a pocket, generally A indicated by the numeral I0, which opens inwardly and may be positioned at any point onthe inner circumference of the strap 2. The pocket I 0 is provided with a separable fastener II, the edges of'which are attached to the belt by stitchings as shown at I2.

In constructing a belt of the type described above, a longitudinally extending strap of solid leather is selected and preferably a transverse slit is made from an extremity of the strap 2' to the desired point on the strap. The location of this point depends upon the positioning and length of the pocket desired. This transverse slit is indicated at I3 in Figure 3. Instead of this method, if desired a sharp cutting instrument may be inserted in the border of the strap at the point where it is desired to form the pocket and a transverse slit is made the length of the desired pocket.

In either case, as best shown in Figure 2, the inner surface of the belt is then cut longitudinally until the slit is reached and a rectangular portion of leather is cut out to form the slot Il. This slot does not extend the length of the slit as indicated by the portions I5.

As best shown in Figure 5, the two parts of the separable fastener II are now inserted under the cut edges of the belt formed by the removal of the rectangular portion of leather and the `portions of the fastener are joined to these edges by stitching as indicated at I2. As shown in Figure 4, the remainder of the belt is of solid leather. The outer seams of the pocket I0 are joined in any suitable manner as by cementing or stitching. Preferably, if the seams are stitched, the stitching is continued around the entire longitudinal length of the strap 2 as indicated at 9 in order to carry out the design.

It is believed apparent that, by providing a pocket of the construction described, the closure member II is permitted to lie iiushv with and slightly beiov." the interior surface of the belt. thereby preventing bulging and also eliminating the necessity of using an inner lining. It should be noted that, as the transverse slit I3 is of used. does not form the invention, and that therefore variations can be made in these structures without departing from the spirit of the invention. Moreover, the buckle may be positioned at various points on the circumference ofthe strap and various types of closure members may be used within the scope of the invention. It is therefore to be appreciated that this invention is only limited by the prior art and the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A method of constructing a belt for personal wear having a pocket comprising making a transverse slit through a portion of the length of a strap of leather to form two adjacent plies, cutting through one of said plies to form a sub' stantially rectangular slot having a length substantially less than the length of said slit and a width substantially greater than the width of the thicker portion of a separable fastening member provided to form a closure for thelslot, securing the closure member to the ply adjacent the edges of the slot so that the thicker portion of the fastening member lies within the space dened by the slot and substantially removed from the edges of the slot and joining the adjacent edges of the plies to form a pocket..

2. A method of constructing a belt for personal wear having a pocket comprising making a trans- -verse slit through a portion of the length of a strap of leather intermediate its ends to form .two adjacent plies, cutting through one of said plies to form a substantially rectangular slot having a length substantially less than the length of said slit and a width substantially greater than the width of the thicker portion of a separable fastening member provided to form a closure for the slot, securing the closure member to the ply adjacent the edges of the slot so that 2,sa1,sos

the thicker portion of the fastening member lies within the space defined by the slot and substantially removed from the edges o'f the slot and joining the adjacent edges of the plies to formk Vthe edges of the slot so that the thicker portion of the fastening member lies within the space defined by the peripheral edges of the slot and substantially removed from the edges of the slot and joining the adjacent edges of the plies to form a pocket.

4. A belt for personal wear comprising a strap of solid leather, a recess formed in the strap an opening formed in the inner surface of the belt in communication with the recess, and a closure member having an interlocked separable fasten ing element secured to the strap adjacent the edges of the opening, said opening being of a length substantially less than the length of the recess and a width substantially greater than the Width of the interlocked fastening element of said closure member to permit said interlocked fastening element to project freely into and occupy the space provided by said opening thereby providing a substantially uniform thickness to -the belt.

5. A belt for personal wear comprising a strap of solid leather, a recess formed in the strap and extending through the edges of the strap means toclose the edges of the recess to form a pocket, an opening in one surface of the strap communicating with the pocket, and a closure member having an interlocked separable fastening element secured to the strap adjacent the edges of the opening, said opening being' of a length substantially less than the length of the recess and a width substantially greater than the width of the interlocked fastening element of said closure member to permit said interlocked fastening element to project freely into and occupy the space provided by said opening thereby providing a substantially uniform thickness to the belt.

WILLIAM GovAN. 

